Star date: 21st October 2014

`ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!'...TEACHERS STRIKE OVER 60 HOUR WEEKS AND HUGE WORKLOAD

"We're spending more time form filling than teaching these kids and doing good things for these kids..."

Swinton High School Academy was closed today for all but year 7 and 11 pupils as teachers from NASUWT trade union went on strike over excessive workloads, over monitoring and bureaucracy which has seen many working sixty hours a week and weekends.

The strike continues tomorrow and for three days after half term.

Full details here...

Teachers who are members of NASUWT trade union went on strike today as Swinton High School Academy shut for all but year 7 and 11 pupils. The teachers say that excessive workloads have seen them work over sixty hours a week and weekends after Head Teacher, Mark Harrison, brought in new initiatives which are draining them and having an effect in the classroom.

"We're on strike today because there's some policies and practices that have been imposed on our members that really threaten the work life balance, undermine the professionalism and threaten their pay progression as well" explained Rachel Knight, local secretary for Salford NASUWT

"On average the members have had eight years length of service in the school - the longest is 16 years - and these are the teachers that have taken the school from not being the best school in Salford to getting some of the best results ever in 2012, with OFSTED judgements good or outstanding" she said

"We're up against the Government moving the goalposts all the time and results dipped this year" she added "But we're saying that the best way to get those results back up isn't to impose more observation and monitoring on us, it's to work with us and be more developmental, and recognise that there are a lot of teachers here with a lot of experience that they want to share. We all want the kids of Swinton High School to do well.

"This is a national thing but you've got teachers working sixty hour weeks getting no time with their own families or any kind of personal life" she said "These teachers will work their backsides off to get good results for our kids but the things that are coming into the school are not the things that are going to achieve that.

"This is not about money it's about workload, work life balance, over monitoring and the bureaucracy that goes with monitoring" she explained"We're spending more time form filling and playing with data than we are teaching these kids and doing good things for these kids."

Her sentiments are backed up by Karen Hopwood, NASUWT National Executive Member for Greater Manchester, who joined teachers on the picket line this morning.

"There are a number of issues with the school" she said "The head has introduced initiatives that there was no consultation on, and while we have been in talks with him for about nine hours in total, there's some unrealistic targets that he won't move on, causing de-motivation of the staff and the pupils. He's doing a lot of things that are causing anxiety and stress with the staff, and is not listening to what they are saying.

"It is with regret that the teachers here are taking strike action today" she added "We hoped to get a resolution before we had to escalate things to this level but hopefully we can resume the talks and get somewhere. Teachers are committed to the pupils and take on board everything that's thrown at them but sometimes enough is enough.

"These staff are telling me that they are going home from school and doing three extra hours plus and working into the early hours" she explained "We did a workload trawl and they were talking about doing sixty hours a week and working all weekends, and you can't have a teacher in the classroom doing their best for pupils if they're tired."

The strike at Swinton High will continue tomorrow and for three days after half term.

"We're hoping to get a resolution before the next three days of strike action and the main crux of that is the removal of numeric targets for our staff" said Emma Danton, school based rep for NASUWT "We need to take account of the fact that pupils' achievement is affected by a whole host of factors. Obviously we want the best for pupils and we want them to do really well but we can't have everything held accountable just to us when we don't have that child for a full week."

This is the first teachers' strike in Salford that has been about conditions since the redundancies at Oasis MediaCityUK Academy a few years ago, and shows, like Rachel said, that `Enough is enough!'

The teachers were joined on the picket line by members of Salford City UNISON, which also represents non-teaching staff at the school. Assistant Branch secretary, Diane Ogg said "We're here to give teachers our full support on the issues, both the national ongoing issues and some local issues exclusive to the Academy."

Swinton High School Head Teacher, Mark Harrison, told the Salford Star: "Despite repeated meetings with the NASUWT where we had resolved several key issues that were concerning staff, we are very disappointed that NASUWT has decided to take this action at Swinton High School, and our focus now is on minimising the disruption for our students and their families."

• Swinton High School results did dip this year and those arriving at the picket line couldn't help wondering about levels of literacy, when signs posted around the school appear to have their grammar up the wall... `Would Visitors Please Report to the School Office?' A question mark hangs over the school's communications dept.